This invention relates to equipment for supporting and handling articles, particularly meat products, in manufacturing and processing operations and is more particularly concerned with improvements in bacon hangers or combs for supporting pork bellies during processing to form slabs of bacon.
In the slaughtering or butchering of hogs the various portions or cuts into which the animal carcass is divided are prepared for marketing by meat packers and processors according to the type of cut and the form in which it is desired to present it to the consumer. Generally, cuts known as pork bellies are processed by suspending them for a predetermined time in a processing area, such as a smoke house, or similar curing area, where they are converted into slabs of bacon which may be supplied to the consumer in a solid piece or cut into slices after sizing and packaged to provide the familiar sliced bacon package.
In the conventional butchering and processing operation, pork bellies are transported from the butchering or cutting area to an area where they are located on bacon hangers, which serve to support the bellies on a tree or rack while they are being processed. When the processing or curing is completed, the bacon slabs are removed from the hangers enabling reuse of the latter.
The bacon hangers which have been provided heretofore have been formed with pointed prongs or teeth arranged as in a comb and mounted on a frame depending from a bracket member which is shaped or otherwise formed for engaging an overhead rail, track bar, smokestick or the like. Generally, the hangers have been constructed so that the hanger teeth or prongs can be readily inserted into the relatively soft area along the top ends of the bellies by holding the bellies and pressing the teeth into the same, with some portion of the frame serving as a handle for gripping it while guiding the teeth into the meat. During processing of the slab, the processing equipment together with the transportation of the bacon slab from place to place cause the bacon slab to swing back and forth. This swinging of the slab results in bending forces that are concentrated in the hook section of the structure. The bending forces cause hardening of the hook shaft and subsequent structural failure of the hanger.